


Another Miraculous Gilbert Recovery

by withprettywords



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Damon does care, Fix It Fic, Happy Ending, M/M, SPOILERS 04x14/15, comes back to life, deremy, jamon - Freeform, kind of sad, reactionary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-03
Updated: 2013-03-03
Packaged: 2017-12-04 04:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/706429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withprettywords/pseuds/withprettywords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once things finally settle, Damon can react to the loss. But then he finds out things have changed. SPOILERS 04x14/15 !!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Miraculous Gilbert Recovery

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of stream of consciousness and a mess. I might eventually edit it or something. I was mostly just sad about Jeremy dying so I wrote a fix-it fic to make myself feel better.

The thing is, Damon really did care about Jeremy. Not just because Elena wanted him to, or because he was always around. Damon cared about Jeremy just because he was him. Jeremy was this perfect mix of Alaric, Stefan and Elena that filled this void inside Damon, giving him everything he never got from any of them.

Jeremy followed Damon around admiringly in that little brother way that Stefan hadn't done since they were children. He was brave too, like Alaric and willing to do what was necessary to save the people he cared about. He wasn't terrible company on a mission either. And most of all, he loved fast and freely like Elena never could. Damon wasn't surprised the first time Jeremy kissed him, the boy had a thing for supernatural beings, but he was surprised when he didn't stop. There was no lecture or ultimatum. No moral breakdown or telling Damon he needed to change. Jeremy just wanted to be with him in that moment and so he was.

It wasn't weird between them after that. Jeremy never asked him for a commitment, or a relationship. It was always a casual thing that happened a couple times and was never spoken of again. But Damon wanted to talk about it now. He wanted to say that it meant something. He wanted Jeremy to know that he cared about him all along.

"And now he's gone and you're gone and there's nobody left to talk to," Damon shouted at Alaric's grave, whiskey sloshing from the bottle as he pointed at the headstone accusingly.

"And I don't even know if you're around because Jeremy is the one who sees ghosts but now he can't see anything because he's dead too and it's not fair!" He was holding the Gilbert ring in his fist, Jeremy's Gilbert ring, squeezing hard enough to crush it if it weren't spelled.

Damon was angry, because out of all of them he’d always thought Jeremy would be the one to make it out. He adapted quickly and was still pretty normal, despite everything. Maybe because he started out a little darker to begin with, the vampire stuff didn't change him much. It didn't matter now because Jeremy was gone and they'd used up all of their miraculous saves ages ago.

Damon spent the night in the graveyard, yelling at the ghosts he hoped were around to listen. It felt less crazy that way. He yelled at Alaric for leaving him alone. He yelled at Jeremy for getting too involved in this mess. He yelled at Alaric to tell him to yell at Jeremy on the other side. Damon yelled until his words turned to unintelligible drunken babbling. He fell asleep in the cemetery, slouched against some old Fell's tombstone.

\------------------------------

"Damon?" He heard, far too early in the morning. Or maybe afternoon because the sun was high in the sky already. "What are you doing—I've looked everywhere!"

"Clearly not," he said, peeking open his eyes to see a mildly irritated Caroline. She was dressed up and had clearly trudged through the woods to get here, which is exactly the kind of thing that makes Caroline irritated. He was about to ask why she was dressed like that but then he remembered—Jeremy—there would be a memorial service.

"Did I miss the memorial?" He asked, trying to sound disinterested and aloof as usual but he couldn't even fool himself. This one mattered.

"Memorial? Wha? Oh, you mean for Jeremy?"

Damon glared at her because that was insensitive, but he couldn't call her on it because he wasn't supposed to be sensitive enough to be offended. Nobody believed that he cared about Jeremy in life, why would they it now that he’s dead.

She laughed. "Damon, Jeremy is alive."

"But, how? I thought that would take too many precious human sacrifices," Damon said, annoyed with the others who wouldn't do what was necessary to bring him back.

"Turns out Bonnie can do magic in her mind because she tried a bunch of spells while she was lying on the cave floor and one of them stuck. She put a protection spell on Jeremy that tied him to some nearby human. So that guy is totally dead, but Jeremy came back. It took him forever to heal..."

She was still talking, but it didn't matter what she said because Jeremy was alive and Damon had to find him. He stood up and started walking. Caroline harrumphed because she was still talking when he walked off, but eventually she caught up.

"Where is he?" Damon asked.

"Probably at Bonnie's. Elena told me to find you. She's at your house, maybe you should go there first," Caroline suggested, always willing to share her opinion.

"Yeah yeah," he said, speeding off at vampire speed. Caroline didn't bother following.

\------------------------------

"Little witch, little witch, let me come in," he said, knocking on the Bennett door.

"Damon?" Bonnie said, clearly surprised to see him and seeming a bit out of breath. She looked like she'd been crying and Damon thought of the many ways he could kill Caroline if she lied to him about Jeremy.

He was about to ask if Jeremy was there, preparing for the slap that would come if he was actually dead and she thought Damon was being cruel. But then Jeremy appeared behind her, and Damon lost his breath.

"Damon?" Jeremy asked in that adorably confuddled way that Damon thought he'd never hear again. He felt his mouth pull into a wide smile. Not a smirk, a genuine happy smile.

Bonnie looked at him suspiciously, but Jeremy just smiled back. "Let him in," Jeremy told her and she reluctantly invited him into the house.

"I'll be in my room," she told them and Jeremy nodded, leading Damon to the living room.

"So, another miraculous Gilbert recovery. Who says your family is cursed?" He tried for a joke.

"Maybe I should just turn now and save us all the trouble," Jeremy said half serious, but Damon found himself resisting the idea. He loved turning people into vampires, but they just got Jeremy back and he likes the kid just the way he is.

"But then we'd miss out on the crazy powers you get when you rise from the dead."

Jeremy shrugged. “None so far.” He looked like he wanted to say something more and Damon smirked at his transparency. "I was dead for awhile, you know," he said, and Damon nodded even though, no he didn't know that. He got the cliffnotes version of this story at best so he didn't know the details.

"I was on the other side..." He said and Damon started to see where this was going.

"With the ghosts of girlfriend monsters past?" Damon deflected.

Jeremy shook his head. "I'm sure they were there, but I just saw Alaric."

Damon flinched at his friend's name, the way he always does when someone dares mention him. "And how's Ric doing these days? Lots of creatures to kill over there I’m sure."

"Actually, he spends most of his time here. Watching over all of us. Especially you."

“Well, good. At least he won’t feel alone, I talk to him often enough...” Damon said, trying not to reveal that he was thrilled by that news.

“I know,” Jeremy said, and now he was blushing and Damon had no idea why. Damon’s confusion must have shown because Jeremy went on, “I was there with him last night, at the cemetery.”

And then it dawned on him what Jeremy was saying. He was at the cemetery. He heard Damon talking. Now, if only Damon could remember what he’d said.

“I was drunk,” he offered automatically.

Jeremy laughed and Damon just drank it in because that was another sound he thought he’d never hear. “Clearly. In fact, you might have been a level past drunk. I’ve never seen someone drink through a whole bottle of whiskey in one night.”

“Well you’ve never drank with vampires before. It takes about that much for us to feel it.”

“So did you mean it? All those things you said?” Jeremy asked in that hesitant tone he always used when he knew Damon would just tell him to shut up or go away. Damon couldn’t answer him like that anymore, not after everything that has happened. He owes Jeremy more than that.

“Depends on what I said,” he answered vaguely. Damon remembered the yelling part, but not so much the actual words.

Damon could almost hear the blood rushing to the boy’s cheeks as a flush covered his features. He was embarrassed, but why?

“You said you loved me,” Jeremy admitted sheepishly. He didn’t look up at Damon, clearly expecting one of his witty retorts, or worse, something actually mean. Truthfully, Damon didn’t know what to say. He was surprised. There were only a handful of people he’s ever felt that way about, even fewer that he’s told. He was surprised to find little Jeremy Gilbert among that group, but he couldn’t find it in himself to deny it.

Some people would take his silence as rejection, but Jeremy knew him well enough to know that Damon was never quiet. Stefan was the silent, brooding brother. Damon always had something to say, so his lack of denial could only be interpreted as acceptance.

Jeremy finally looked up at him and he looked amused, like a person looking at the past with a new understanding. “I always thought you didn’t care about me. Every time you helped me I thought it was for Elena.”

Damon shrugged. “Sometimes it was. But it was for you too.”

This was one of the few times that Damon was happy to not have a pulse. No blood circulation, no blushing. “Besides, I’ve met a lot of Gilberts and they’re usually dicks. If anything, you should get to live for not being like that.”

Damon was trying to take some of the intensity out of the moment, and Jeremy let him joke. It had only been a couple hours since Jeremy woke up completely healed. The last few times he died, he didn’t remember anything from the other side, but this time it was all there. Alaric. The cemetery. Damon.

“So in a town full of people grieving your death, why did you come to me?” Damon asked, looking uncomfortable to be asking a question without sass, just genuine interest.

“I don’t know. I just felt like we had unfinished business. And I was sad that we would never get a chance to work it out.”

There was a lot Jeremy wasn’t saying, but Damon didn’t need him to be more frank. If he could remember last night, Damon was probably having equally depressing thoughts—probably saying them out loud too. They had spent a night together at the lake house, just like they used to in Jeremy’s room or on Damon’s bed. But it didn’t feel much like those times, which were fueled by teenage hormones, curiosity and amplified vampire feelings. It was harder to think of Jeremy as the same silly boy that he was then, looking for danger and excitement. He was grown now, dealing with things far beyond his years, and through all this training they were beginning to feel like partners.

Jeremy wasn’t shy or timid anymore—he was confident, not afraid to go for what he wanted. That night he wanted Damon, and it was nice not having to think about sire bonds and questionable consent. Jeremy had come to him that night, like he always did, no manipulation or compulsion. Everything was always easy with Jeremy, and that was the thing Damon thought he’d miss the most.

“Is that what we’re doing, working it out?” Damon asked, because they never really talked about this, never needed to until Jeremy was gone and they were both left wondering what it all meant.

“We can,” Jeremy offered, looking hopeful.

“Or we can leave things as they are,” Damon joked. Jeremy looked away, disappointed and Damon thought he might leave the room. “I was joking,” he said, a little shaken by how invested Jeremy was in this thing between them. He’d never been pursued so intently by someone he actually had feelings for in return.

“So what did you come back from the dead to tell me?” Damon asked, hoping he hadn’t shut down this conversation for good.

“I didn’t--” Jeremy started, probably going to explain that he had no control over coming back, didn’t even know it would happen, so he couldn’t have come back with such a purpose. He seemed to think better of that approach, or maybe just wanted to make the most of this time where Damon was actually willing to talk seriously.

“It’s not like things have to change. I’m not asking you to be my boyfriend or for us to have this epic love story or anything. It’s just different now that there are feelings involved. Less casual, I guess.”

“More like a relationship,” Damon said bluntly and Jeremy tried not to flinch. He knew Damon would be watching him for a reaction, trying to gauge what he was thinking. Catch him caring too much.

“Call it whatever you want. You just spent the night crying over me in a graveyard, and I spent it following you around wishing we actually had a chance when I was alive. And now I’m alive,” Jeremy said, his arms spread wide saying here I am, do something about it.

Damon smiled because this is what he loves most about Jeremy. He has this way of throwing himself into things with reckless abandon, hoping for the best, but there for the ride either way. Damon crossed the room, using his vampire speed because that always makes Jeremy smile. He pulled the boy off the couch, probably harder than a recently revived person should be touched, and kissed him.

Jeremy was strong and passionate, but also open and unguarded. He wasn’t afraid of being vulnerable or showing the wrong side of himself. He just wanted someone to accept him as he is, on his own terms, and wasn’t that what Damon wanted too? Now that he had Jeremy back in his arms, he held on tight. He tried not to think about how different it was holding him now than when he’d carried his body into the Gilbert house. Maybe it made him hold on that much tighter.

They ended up back on the couch, pulling at each other’s clothes. “Not here,” Jeremy pulled back to say and Damon groaned because delays were not something he dealt with well. “Bonnie’s upstairs, remember,” Jeremy reminded and that was enough to convince him. They’d been on tentative good terms since the island and Damon wasn’t about to piss off a witch.

“Fine. But your house is ashes,” Damon said, in case Jeremy didn’t know.

“And Elena’s at yours,” Jeremy said, and he kind of flinched at that. They would have to explain this to everyone else eventually, but not today. Today, they were alive and together, and sometimes that’s all you need.

“Ric’s apartment?” Damon suggested with a smirk.

Jeremy laughed. “He’s going to love this...”


End file.
